Thursday, October 25, 2012

Grow Tomatoes from Seed


Tomato Seeds Marglobe variety
Tomatoes are the number one item grown in the home vegetable garden.  And while many people will still and always refer to the tomato as a vegetable the tomato is botanically a fruit. 

Tomatoes are also one of the easiest fruits to grow in the home vegetable garden.  With the wide range of tomato varieties to choose from, you are sure to find the right tomato plant for your specific climate.

How you specifically use your tomato for consumption may also steer you into the direction of which tomato variety you will grow.  For instance, I find using home grown Roma tomatoes are the most ideal to make tomato based sauces and tomato based salsas.  The main reason being, besides the great taste Roma tomatoes have, is the fact that it is easier to remove the seeds from Roma tomatoes.

Now that is not to say that other varieties of tomatoes such as cherry, pear or beefsteak tomatoes would not serve the same purpose for a recipe.  From my own experience, removing tomato seeds can be time consuming in varieties not named Roma.  I will save the beefsteak tomatoes for my summer lunchtime sandwich with mayo and cherry tomatoes for salads.

Regardless of which tomato variety you choose, I believe that you will not find anything more rewarding in your garden, especially for your tomato crop, than growing all of those tasty tomatoes from seeds.  Something about the challenge of growing tomatoes directly from the seed, starting your tomato plants indoors before you can even move the tomato plants to the outdoors, strikes me (and maybe you) as one of those tasks where you say, “Yeah, I did it, I grew those tomatoes from seeds”.

Here is what I do, to maximize the success of my tomato plants, and of course yield nice juicy tomatoes for all of those tomato recipe items I mentioned earlier.

As with other seeds, you won’t have much luck in the germination process with your tomato seeds if you start with a terrible starter soil.  Here is where you have plenty of options to start your tomato seeds in.  You have the expandable peat pellets.  These are small hard and compressed starter pellets that you add hot water to and they expand.  I use these quite often to start my tomato seeds and do very well with them.  Using the peat pellets, I easily get about 95% to 97% germination rates of my tomato seeds. Of course I also use them in conjunction with a propagation dome

Along with peat pellets, you can start your tomato seeds in a pre-packaged starter soil that you can purchase at any home or garden center.  These starter soils are especially formulated for seed starting.  They now even make starter soils for tomato seeds.  Tomato seed starting soil includes specific nutrients that not only increase germination rates, but help build strong roots of the young tomato plants, when the tomato plants need it the most.

You can also make your own tomato seed starting soil with many recipes found by doing a quick Google search.  Tomato seed starting soil recipes are plenty in abundance online.  You are sure to find a tomato seed starting soil that meets your climate and zone requirements.

Under optimal growing conditions, and that means, your tomato seed starters are getting at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, are in a propagation dome (or something similar), and the soil is moist but not saturated, you can expect your tomato seeds to germinate in as little as 6 days.  If you do not see any activity out of your tomato seeds after day 10, something has gone wrong, and you may have to start over.

Tomatoes love to grow in climates that are hot and humid, which explains why we here in New Jersey do so well with growing tomatoes.  Even in the worse of years with drought, our tomatoes in New Jersey seem to produce above average.  With that said, do not transplant your tomato starters too soon.  If the threat of frost is still at a medium to high level in your area, keep your tomato seed starters indoors until fear of frost passes by.  A single night’s worth of frost will decimate your tomato seed starters.  You can always cover them at night with a cloche or a 6 mil thick clear plastic tarp, but I like to leave my tomato seed starters indoors until the time comes to move them.

I won’t get into too much detail regarding hardening off your tomato plants in this article and podcast series.  As a quick overview, hardening off your tomato plants simply means to get them used to the outdoors so as not to shock your tomato plants when you do make the move.

When planting your tomato starters outdoors, choose a location that receives a full day’s worth of sun and try not to plant your tomato plants in an area where you previously planted potatoes, peppers or eggplants. 

When it comes to spacing out your tomato plants, I have read a thousand different sizes that will work for hundreds of different tomato varieties.  For me, I like to prop up my tomato plants with tomato cages.  They cost a couple of bucks a piece from the local home center and are virtually maintenance free.  Getting back to tomato spacing, I use the measurement of the diameter of the tomato cage top and add 6 inches.  It is this measurement that I use to space out my tomato plants.  This method has worked out well for me for the better part of 30 years.

Some people like to use tomato stakes and other methods to support their tomato plants and all I am sure they are all fine.  In fact my dad used me and my brother’s old hockey sticks when we were kids to use as stakes for his tomato plants.  You are only limited by your imagination.  However, when in doubt, space out your tomato plants no less than fifteen inches, and even at that spacing, that will be tight.

As a side note, yes those Topsy Turvey™ upside down tomato planters really do work and produce a lot of tomatoes.  So if you are limited on space, it may be a good way for you to go.  You can also make your own upside down tomato growers out of some 5 gallon buckets, but I will save that for a future discussion.

Now that you have your tomatoes started, transplanted and supported, let’s talk about simple care.  While your tomato plants are growing give them a good watering making sure the soil your tomatoes are planted in remains moist but not saturated.  Once you begin to harvest your tomatoes you can reduce your watering, unless of course conditions are very dry.

Tomatoes required high amounts of nutrients, especially Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous.  Be sure to add these as the season goes on.  Again there are plenty of choices for your tomato plants, from organic, to Miracle Gro™ and tomato specific formulas.   Me personally, I create loads of compost and will continually add this to the base of my tomato plants throughout the course of my gardening season. 

Good luck with your tomato crop for many seasons to come!

About the Author 
 Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us. Be sure to join Mike`s vegetable seeds mailing list.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

30 comments:

  1. My first attempt at growing tomatoes from seeds failed. I used those peat pellets. I plan on trying it again this year using manure pots and potting soil. Is that a good or bad idea?

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    1. both will work fine ... when do you start your tomato seeds, are you keeping your planted tomato seeds in a humidity dome until you are ready to transplant your tomato seedlings outside?

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  2. I grew four tomato plants last season. Two from heirloom seed, two from store transplant. The heirloom seed tomato plants produced tasty fruit. The transplants produced pretty but not particularly tasty. The soil was a mix of composts, vermiculite, & peat moss.

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  3. I have no experience growing tomatoes from seeds. In the past all the tomato plants I have grown have been transplants. part of why I joined the seed club was because it was starting to seem silly; the started plants are $1.50-$3 each around here for basic run of the mill plants. Since I was starting my own herbs, and did garlic last year, it seemed silly to me to not give it a try. I figure if I screw it up, there will be transplants, but if it works, such an opportunity to increase my varietals!

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  4. I first started growing tomatoes from seeds in 2011. They came up fine but then became very leggy. It is then I realized that my greenhouse was not letting enough light in. I put the tomatoes outside to help. They fell over. I planted the tomatoes seedlings in the garden with the stems buried so that just the tops were showing. This is supposed to help the stems grow roots. Something came along and ate all the tops.. I have chickens, gophers, squirrels and bugs. I finally got them to grow. Excellent tomatoes, but not supported very well and they went all over the ground in one huge tomato jungle.

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  5. Started some tomatoes that came from our compost pile. They know have tomatoes on them.

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  6. I have been very happy with all the TOMATO SEEDS I have received from Mike over this past year. We have been really successful and still have tomatoes ripening on the vine that I will be harvesting into January!

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  7. This year I'll plant seeds for the first time and, with what I've learned here, have amazing healthy fresh tomatoes!

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  8. I have never grown anything before. But I have wanted for so long to grow food, it was just so intimidating. I found this site and joined the seed club. This year I will start my first garden ever. I will plant seeds that I received from the seed club and I look forward to using what I've learned here to grow amazing health fresh tomatoes and other veggies for my family. Thank you for sharing all of this knowledge!

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  9. I live in zone 8 (coastal Alabama) and we have a LONG growing season with lots of sunshine, heat & humidity! I buy TOMATO SEEDS that are specifically designated for high heat & humidity and have had pretty good luck with tomato yields. I use the peat pellets in my green house in early spring to start my seeds and find they are the best for my needs. I also use styrofoam cups (CHEAP) to place my peat pellets/seedlings in with added soil (my mixture of course) to continue to grow the seedlings for larger plants to transplant to my garden at a later date. Reason for doing this is so I can lay my tomato plants down horizontally for a much larger, healthier plant with a tremendous root system. I use 99.9% of the methods you describe here and have wondered if it weren't "ME" that actually wrong these tips for the average gardener! LOL! I've had great success using the topsy turvy hanging tomato planters and use these mainly for my cherry tomato's as they are so heavy with large fruit to pull the plants from the planter. I use double shepard hook poles to hang my topsy turvy planter because I have them handy. I do have a MAJOR question as far as seed collection from my heirloom tomato plants. HOW DO YOU COLLECT, PREPARE and STORE these seeds? I'm now widowed and my husband was the "master gardener and took care of all of this while I was busy doing all the canning. I do not have the time to look thru all the years of your posts/information/articles to see if I can find this info so I would be eternally grateful for the information. I KNOW we self sufficient homesteaders will have to resort to saving our heirloom NON GMO seeds in order to have veggies from year to year, especially with the country in the perils it is in. I plan to make a major purchase of seeds from your company as soon as I have time to prepare my order. Now that the holidays are over, my time will be a bit more available for necessary things.
    Thank you for a FABULOUS Website full of invaluable information and I know I will be visiting your site frequently. I have it bookmarked for easy retrieval!!

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  10. The first time I grew tomatoes from seed was an amazing experience! My sister came over and helped me plant them in those tiny little seed trays.Being the first time using them I thought to myself aren't the poor tiny little seeds going to somehow fall through?
    well of course they didn't I ended having 200+ roma tomato seeds burst into little tomato plants. Way too many then I knew what to do with! But I planted around 25 of them in my own garden, and gave a few to my sister. I kept them alive as long as I could trying to sell them or figure out space to plant them, but I eventually couldn't keep up with them. It was sad, but overall it was great knowing how easy it was to plant and grow tomatoes from seed, and have been doing it every year sense then. Of course with a lot more heirloom varieties, and less seeds.

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  11. I have never grown tomatoes from seeds. It seems very nerve racking for me. I don't have a location really in my home to start any because the window that gets most of the morning sun is the one that shines on my kitchen table. I would love to be able to figure out how to grow things as starters instead of buying the starter plants. Seeds are way cheaper, more of them and well I think would be better all the way around.

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  12. I grow a fairly large backyard garden every year, and tomatoes are one of the easiest plants i find to grow from seed. They start with just a few days in late march, inside, in my egg cartons. I move them outside in the day time in late april/early may. By mid-may, they are outside full time in my little green house (glorified plastic wrap over a frame). Then i take the plastic off and let them get the wind and full night exposure for about a week before the initial transplant into the ground around Memorial Day. I've had some plants that grew in excess of 8' tall! Don't bother with those 'cages' either. They aren't strong enough nor tall enough. Get a proper 6-8 foot wooden stake and tie them loosely with an old t-shirt rag strip as it grows every foot or so. Enjoy the harvest of your labors!

    Buying plants from a local nursery is 'cheating'. And frankly, it takes the fun out of it. Plus, it costs more, and you have NO idea what exactly you are growing. Is it gmo? is it organic? heirloom? Grow tomatoes from seed. It's fun and easy!

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  13. We have never grown tomatoes from seed. They grow themselves. Each year, a few volunteers sprout from the remains of the previous season's crop. This spring, we felt disappointed that no free plants had grown in one of our tomato areas until Bryan walked into the yard and found a perfect cherry tomato plant growing along the ground. We harvested about a dozen sweet, tiny globes.

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  14. I tried growing tomatoes from seed last season. I must not have had enough light or humidity because I never got big healthy plants. I'd like to try some of the rarer varieties that I can't get as plants.

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  15. I have been growing my own tomato plants from my own seed for about 6 years now. For years, up until that point, I grew the same old same old varieties because I had no clue that a world of varieties even existed. Then I found online gardening forums and learned about tomatoes that come in every color of the rainbow, in shapes beyond grocery store round, and from the smallest pea size up to the size of a large grapefruit. So now I am an avid Tomato seed collector...and branching out into peppers and beans and more. It is way more gratifying to grow from your own seed. Even if it is more time consuming and sometimes frustrating. But those juicy delicious tomatoes are so worth the effort.

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  16. So far I haven't had much luck growing tomatoes from seeds. I did have some come up last year, then had to leave town and they died while I was gone, due to lack of water. I am accumulating more seeds from tomatoes and other produce that I hope to have great success with this year. Your seeds will go a long way to helping me!

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  17. I grew Tomatoes successfully for the first time from the seeds I received from you last year. I tried before but with little luck I was so excited and a little shocked when they came up! Not only did they come up but they actually grew into wonderful healthy plants and they bore fruit! YIPPEEE! I am sold on doing this again this year - I can't wait to try it again in about 6 weeks - oh I should add I am in zone 4 - this really is a big deal here!

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  18. I am so excited to start growing tomatoes by seed!! I have used peat pellets and also just in the garden without pre-starting them. It just depends on what state I happen to live in at the time and the growing season :)
    thank you so much for the inexpensive way to buy seeds! You guys rock!

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    1. Congratulations! You have been chosen as the winner of the book! Please email me at mike@averagepersongardening.com so I know where to send it. I also made this announcement on our Facebook page.

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  19. I go to the Reskilling Expo held in my hometown of Santa Cruz CA that they hold 3x a year. At the Jan 2012 Expo there was a class on how to start tomatoes and peppers from seed at home. Free packets of heirloom seeds were given out to all students. I set up 3 TV tray tables under the skylights in my home office and started about 150 seeds, way more than I had room to grow myself. Much to my delight they all germinated! The whole process came full circle for me when I was able to donate over 50 of them to the following Expo that May so that they could sell my seedlings (now in individual 4" pots) to help raise funds for the non-profit that sponsors these events as well as the Santa Cruz Grows seed library! Looking forward to starting seeds again in late Jan 2013 :)

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  20. I haven't gotten ambitious enough to plant tomato seeds in recent years. I promise to start as many plants as I can in the house this winter!!! (Although our average in-ground planting date isn't until after Mother's Day) :(

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  21. Live in southern California and I had my first experience growing tomatoes from seeds. I received the seeds from my friend and I grew only 3 plants expecting anything more than that to die on me. I grew the seedlings in my kitchen window then transplated them to the topsy turvy. It was a very warm fall and we had a decent yield for minimal effort. I have some still in topsy turvys with the size being quite big, but no ripeness due to the late season. I noticed that the taste was different than what I expected (not as sweet) and I hope to do some tomatoes in the ground hoping that the taste will be more to what I am used to.

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  22. I have always had great success growing tomatoes from seeds. I start the seeds in tray in my house with a heat lamp over them. I do them in the house so I can keep a close eye on how they are doing. Thank you for a great article :)

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  23. I have been growing tomato plants for years. There is no comparing the flavour to the store bought tomatoes! I tried a few times to grow them from seed, but failed. I really want to try again. I have the whole set up - grow lamps, heated seedling pads, just a lack of a green thumb. I guess it's more of a olive thumb - greenish, but not green enough. This is a great article though and makes me want to try again. Worse case, I always have enough time to go buy plants at the local farm if it doesn't work out.

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  24. My dad has been planting heirloom Roma tomato seeds that his parents brought from Italy. I have inherited them now. I have the local greenhouse start them for me since I cannot at home as I do not have the proper equipment or greenhouse (yet!). We have a short growing season and this gives them the extra help they need. I love the tradition!

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  25. Hey there!

    When I click on the mailing list link, I get an error. Help!

    Thanks

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    1. try this one: https://averagepersongardening.com/leftoverseeds/step_2.php

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  26. I didn't have much luck growing tomatoes from seeds this year. We tried several different tomato varieties, but we had a very late spring and summer. The rain never seemed to stop. Once it did stop, I was having a hard time attracting bees for pollination. After I figured that out and stopped mowing the wildflowers around my garden we did get a few tomatoes, but they never did ripen before winter set in. I will start them indoors next year and set up small greenhouses to give them a better chance. Oh and I will be planting more flowers to attract the bees.

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